It applies to any types of screen, whether it be screens with a liquid crystal panel (LCD Liquid Crystal Display) and backlight lamps (CCFL, LED or other) or other types of displays, such as:
Plasma
OLED (organic light emitting diode)
SED (Surface-conduction Electron-emitter Display)
FED (Field Emission Display)
OEL (Organic Electroluminescent)
PLED (polymer light-emitting diodes)
PHOLED (Phosphorescent Organic Light-Emitting Diode)
In order to destroy or decontaminate these flat screens at the end of life, there are industrial methods of at least partially grinding these screens during which the faceplate and/or the backlight lamps are usually destroyed or partially damaged. Hence, such methods can cause the release of gases and toxic substances, such as mercury, for example, in the air, on the ground, or in direct contact with constituents of the screen that are liable to be recycled. However, the mercury that is released tends to pollute the other screen members, such as plastic which becomes difficult to recycle. These methods are hence responsible for some pollution and substantially increase the difficulty of recovering any recoverable components, particularly liquid crystals, and metals, particularly indium from the screen.
At present, the existing solutions consist in crushing the screen and drawing out the toxic gaseous elements, or dismantling the screen entirely manually, which is not satisfactory in terms of environmental protection, and in terms of productivity.